#brains base

Baccano! (Brain's Base, 2007)

Hey! I remembered to watch the episode when it came out this time and I had this post out the door at the correct time. Maybe, it’s because I’m actually interested and excited in the story again.

The last episode was very good at getting across all these new concepts, characters and setting very well considering Fushi is suddenly dropped in this bizarre scenario for To Your Eternity. It’s not like it’s a lot to swallow or anything but crucially, it doesn’t make out like it is a lot to swallow. It’s really simple actually. Prison island where “criminals” work as slaves and you have to win a tournament to get out. Pioran - the old woman - is being held somewhere for allegedly poisoning several people of Yanome. Without further ado, let’s push on.

This episode was bizarrely uneventful even though it felt like it wasn’t. There were things happening that kept you concentrating on the screen (sort of) but there was very little substance to the episode. I personally don’t find Tonari endearing at all and her design is one that feels too familiar to make her stand out. I think the uneventful-ness of the episode was pushed by the strange pacing that the direction employed.

Everything felt really fast and rushed between Tonari having conversations with Fushi and trying desperately to come across as quirky to Fushi doing investigating and fighting in the arena. You’d think this episode would be one for teaching about her character but all we learn about her is that her dad was a killer and that she holds some kind of vague authority on the island. She’s obviously deeply interested in Fushi but that was established quickly in the last one.

Fushi gives over to her eventually because she promises info about Pioran’s imprisonment but actually doesn’t give Fushi anything at all when all is said and done. Fushi finds out for himself by using the little mole creature to burrow under the prison wall. Pioran says that she has constantly on the run from the law one way or the other and that she’s used to it. What I do like is the undercurrent that Fushi, despite never really taking a shine to her, is now desperately clinging to her in the world of unfamiliarity. He rejects everyone around him constantly and I like seeing the different sides of Fushi’s behaviour that the animé offers up with every arc.

So Fushi does the fight because Tonari promises that if he wins, she’ll give him precious information. I felt like the fight was over far too quickly and at this point, I did start to notice that the show was clearly in a rush and/or under time constraints and the pacing suffered for it. Before you know it, the fight scene is over and it feels like there were scenes missing. It is neat though. Fushi can’t get through with Parona and is held by the man but transforms into the mole to burrow underneath the ground to escape. Fushi does his best to protect the opponent from angry people in the audience shooting arrows at the both of them for robbing them of a decent spectacle. The man is wounded but not dead.

Fushi explains to the man who is being treated for his wounds that he isn’t interested in killing anyone and at that point, the occupants of the island take issue with Fushi essentially mocking their mortality. They do have a point which is an interesting angle that I wasn’t expecting. Fushi is in a place that he has no business in being. He doesn’t understand the jeopardy of death among the mortal living so he couldn’t possibly appreciate the importance of victory. I liked that.

Of course, the Nokkers show up to deal some beefy chaos onto the unsuspecting prison island of Jananda...

...except they weren’t unsuspecting at all. Pretty quickly, they figure out a way to subdue the beast by wrapping rope around the wrists and pulling with several people at either side to stretch the Nokkers out. This all happens so quickly that I missed it completely. I have no idea how they did this. Before all of that though, Fushi does try to use the mole to burrow in through the cracks of the body to eat away at the veins and arteries but it doesn’t work because the being has kinetic control over the inside of his body.

The main story of this encounter is that Fushi uses Parona to shoot bows and then creates multiple arrows and gunpowder for the people to use so they all work together to fire into the beast. Fushi then thanks Tonari for her help and then it’s over with Fushi then getting his memories back about March, Oniguma and Gugu.

My main beef above all with this episode is that everything is over too quick. I know they have to deal with time constraints and such like but it still goes some way to harming my enjoyment of the show. This episode wasn’t really terrible at all but just medial even in it’s fight scenes of which there were two.

Pillow Time!  

Brothers Conflict  

Durarara!! (Brain’s Base, 2010)

Durarara!! (Brain's Base, 2010)